supreme court's landmark and highly controversial citizens united decision in the last three years we have seen unprecedented amounts of money flowed our democracy taking power away from the american people and giving it to the highest bidder among the billionaires and transnationals the two thousand and twelve election was the most expensive election ever there was more outside money spent than ever before and much of it came from secretive dark money groups so how can we come together or claim the power of the people in the american democracy here to help us answer this and other issues surrounding democratic processes in our republic is the ribbon logic's yearwood president and c.e.o. of the hip-hop caucus mary boyle vice president of communications with common cause back and alexis baden mer and i center and got a political director with the organic consumers association and what thank you all for joining me tonight let's start with the money out voters in day of action revenue want to give us a snapshot of this definitely it's the money out voters in a coalition of groups coming

decision money is corroding the system the day before citizens united came down money was in the system even back in one thousand nine hundred seventy five when i got elected to congress when he was important but back then the talking points came first now the check book comes first on the first day of the legislative session they have a big celebration the lobbyist whichever party is having the event they bring stacks of money now coming along citizens united and what i would say to the points that were made is that mcconnell is taking advantage using the filibuster and it's just one of the variety of efforts to take a look at the fiscal cliff legislation and how many pieces of pork barrel were in that helping with the people who run race cars and others all of that was stuff going on sex one point six billion for new corporate headquarters and if you have if you have the power to buy access and that's what all these special. doing they're buying access and money is corroding system and frankly both parties are at fault one of the things that i like about senator tom harkin

the supreme court and the citizens united decision notwithstanding corporations are not humans. they have a very selective and a very limited and not very humane priority. >> rose: and a very different mission. >> and a very different mission. i mean a robbing baron will at least put his name on a hospital

the supreme court's terrible decision in the citizen's united case open the floodgates and our election system is now awash in sea of mill of dollars unregulated money, drowning out the voices of individual citizens. politicians are beholden to wealthy special interest, a multinational oil country can now simply write a big check to americans for apple pie and puppies and watch the negative advertising work their magic. there are a variety of ways to tackle this problem. in the last congress, i introduced the people's rights amendment which will overturn citizen's united and put a stop to person hood nonsense that it represents. despite what governor romney said on the campaign trail, corporations are not people. other members would have other ideas but very least we need to have this debate and i urge my colleague to defeat the previous question. >> the gentleman from texas is recognized. >> thank you very much madam speaker. once again, we've got a lot of political dogma that's taking place here. i was a worker in a corporation for a number of years and i felt like i was a vital part

decision how goes the fight to overturn citizens united and how are some of this nation's most progressive organizations coming together to give a voice back to the american people. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm john harvey welcome to the big picture. not your asian day of the ball much more than a break about taking a closer look at president obama's second term derby even more and even more invasions of our privacy can end monday january twenty first at the exam and bottom line for the president only monolith.

>> to talk about citizens united. public collect has a great campaign out. i love the sound of it: money out/voters in. kenny is joining us. >> thank you. >> what are you trying to do? what's been the impact of citizens united. >> i think everyone has seen it across the nation and the incredible onslaught of negative as we saw in the last election. but this had more insid yas implications about what politicians may do. it's had an effect on how long certain folks can stay in the primaries. and a terrible effect on people's faith in their government. >> all of the money karl rove spent or the nra spent or the koch brothers spent, the nra spent that the koch brothers, i wrote a book about them. they didn't win that many: so maybe all of that money didn't have as [ voice of dennis ] allstate. with accident forgiveness, they guarantee your rates won't go up [ voice of dennis ] allstate. with accident forgiveness, they guarantee your rates won't go up just because of an accident. smart kid. [ voice of dennis ] indeed. are you in good hands? cap >> bill: the senio

decision how goes the fight to overturn citizens united and how are some of this nation's most progressive organizations coming together to give a voice back to the american people. wealthy british style it's time to. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mikes concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds a report on our. download the official publication if you so choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorites. if you're away from us. just. now with your mobile device you can watch on t.v. anytime anywhere. tonight we have a special bigger picture discussion on the role money plays in our democracy and what can be done to take the money out of politics and to restore the power and force.

citizens united is an issue you have been passionate about. the birth of the idea in my home but it was more the legal structure. years ago i thought instead of fighting all of these environmental battles, why don't we cut corporations in the legal structure and change them so they have to invest in a sustainable future. well, it's easier said than done, and one of the issues that came up early on was about corporate personhood. so it was something i thought about for a while. i think it's generally accepted if you take personhood away not a lot can happen to a corporation because people can still gather to make a profit -- >> jennifer: but if you take

in the last congress i introduced the people's rights amendment which would overturn citizens united and put a stop to the nonsense. despite what governor romney said on the campaign trail, corporations are not people and did he do not deserve the same american rights as citizens. we need to have this debate and i -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. sessions: once again, we have a lot of political dogma is taking place and i was a worker in a corporation and i felt i was the vital part of success of not only that company and the things that i did, but i felt like in my 16 years that i contributed to the success of customers and other people. and just like here in this body, there may be some organization or something that somebody doesn't like that serves this house of representatives, but everybody is here. they show up at work and get their work done. so i would say that corporations , employers, are very important to this country. the ability that all people have just as they were going to vote, to have a say in

the supreme court's citizens united decision opened the floodgates, and we are awash in a sea of millions of dollars of unregulated money drowning out the voice of individual citizens. politicians are increasingly beholden to wealthy special interests -- a multinational oil company that does not like a particular member of congress can just write a big, undisclosed check to americans for apple pie and puppies and watch the american advertising work its magic. there are a variety of ways to solve this problem. i introduced a amendment that would overturn citizens united and put a stop to the corporate personhood nonsense it represents. despite what governor romney said on the campaign trail, corporations are not people, and they do not deserve the same constitutional rights of american citizens. other members will have other ideas, but at the very least we need to have this debate and i urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question. >> the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from texas is recognized. >> thank you, madam speaker. once again we have a lot of political dogma taki

the justice department do anything except find a corporation nothing really changes in the in citizens united made it even worse because they said we have to treat that psychopaths like a person but we can't put the psychopath in prison so it was icing on the cake when the when the majority right wing majority of our supreme court said yeah it's ok to kill people even though we're now going to have a same time call you a legitimate person senator ron wyden of oregon has proposed legislation to make these hold harmless clauses these and and them into cation or if i'm using the word correctly here mike. agreements indemnity agreements go public and be justified both the public and justify any chance that that thing is going to make it through see the light of day and the sense of where that where the politics of that are probably not the only way to to to get any wind behind that sale is to tell the story. on the k.b.r. story is just one of many stories that we're going to start saying look there's not a legislator there in d.c. that doesn't somehow benefit by all of the no bid no negotiation c

the supreme court's citizens united decision opened the floodgates, and we are awash in a sea of millions of dollars of unregulated money drowning out the voice of individual citizens. politicians are increasingly beholden to wealthy special interests -- a multinational oil company that does not like a particular member of congress can just write a big, undisclosed check to americans for apple pie and puppies and watch the american advertising work its magic. there are a variety of ways to solve this problem. i introduced a amendment that would overturn citizens united and put a stop to the corporate personhood nonsense it represents. despite what governor romney said on the campaign trail, corporations are not people, and they do not deserve the same constitutional rights of american citizens. other members will have other ideas, but at the very least we need to have this debate and i urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question. >> the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from texas is recognized. >> thank you, madam speaker. once again we have a lot of political dogma taki

it is the 30th anniversary dollar-third anniversary of citizens united.till have unlimited corporate and union spending, unlimited personal spending in our elections. soft money is on the rise. there is no disclose act. the president has been fairly silent on this topic. we're curious to see how this new c4 -- the former campaign organizing for america, how they have promised online disclosure of who their finders are. we will see if they live up to that promise. >> liz bartolomeo, thank you for enlightening us. we turned back to historical voices, another of the speakers last night was julian bond, the leading civil rights activist, former chair of the board of the naacp, helped found the student nonviolent coordinating committee, was the first esident of the southern poverty law center, a state legislator in georgia for over 20 years. he spoke about the effects of obama's election victory. >> we are gathered here to celebrate the reelection of president obama and in a commencement arguably astounding, if not more so, then the first. we're here celebrati

the more speech the betterment i cannot understand why, and as far as citizens units, citizens united was not novel. it reversed an opinion eight years earlier that had changed the law from what the law had been in buckley. that was assumed to be the law. increase all right. about out of time. >> guest: we are. c-span: i never asked you this on camera, but i'm going to know because i need to get to the late education thinking. >> guest: okay. c-span: television in the court. c-span: television in the court. c-span: i bring it up because congress has resolutions ordering the court to go on television. why are you against it? >> guest: i was for it when i first joined the court, and switched and remained on that side of it. i'm against it because i do not believe as the proponents of television in the courts assert that the purr of televising our hearings would be to educate the american people. that's not what it would end up doing. if i thought it would educate the american people, i would be all for it. if the american people sat down and watched our proceedings, gavel to gavel, they

these deadlines is dealing with the fiscal cliff now is the same congress that was elected post citizens united the first congress and what you had this unlimited amount of corporate money being spent it and here's the congress we got out of it i do want to put up because throughout this day we have been following this story we really thought a deal would be reached so i want to put up some numbers as they were a couple hours ago just so people are prepared in the next couple days the potential deal as it was discussed would bring in about six hundred billion dollars in revenue taxes would be increased by nearly forty percent on individuals earning four hundred thousand dollars or more per year and for families earning four hundred fifty thousand dollars or more the earned income tax credit the child tax credit and the college tax credit would be extended for another five years the estate tax would be raised to forty percent for properties worth more than five million dollars and the deal would extend unemployment benefits for another year and finally the capital gains tax would increase to twe

you did not mention citizens united, and i'm just wondering -- i'm not talking about the legal right of corporations to contribute to the political process, but whether any analysis has been done as to the consequences of such involvement and whether that made the situation worse with. >> with citizens united, i believe, was after '08. so it didn't have an effect on the crisis as such. it may well have -- well, it's campaigns, and we're only just in a campaign cycle being influenced by it. so i think we're going to have to wait til we're down the road a bit to get the implications in terms of practical results. but it is clear that the financial services industry had a large hand in the writing the rules that we got in dodd-frank. and one of my favorite examples just if you want with a emblematic example is the financial stability oversight council where we finally decided we need one group that is going to be overseeing financial stability, and what do we do? we created a council of 15 members. and each constituency has a regulator on that council either a voting or nonvoting member

and only in the wake of the recent citizens united decision and congress' failure to pass a piece oftion that requires disclosure do we have the hundreds of millions of dollars that are going into our political system right now that are undisclosed. so there is one pot that is completely undisclosed. it's dark money. it's a black hole. that's why corporations, wealthy individuals, both have agenda, are putting a lot of money and we have no idea who they are. >> gavin: before citizens uniteed you had swift vote. was that clean open transparent investment money or were they taking advantage of loopholes that were even before citizens united. >> to say that it was reported and it was reported. that almost looks like the good ol' days. they were independent expenditures but we knew who was financing them and we knew how much they were spending. now we don't even know where they put it, if it's in the right pocket or left pocket of the candidate. that's the biggest concern. we oh have not only unlimited money, but unlimited undisclosed money. >> gavin: just so folks know when i ran for li

there are plans to occupy the supreme court from the second anniversary of the citizens united decision. that crazy decision has given the rights to corporations to unleash their treasuries into our already polluted political system. go there. go to your local congresspersons office. go to banks charging student loans up the highest rates. go to those places. i think we will see more of that. occupy congress means not only closing out the super committee. it also means finding movement candidates who will run in the electoral office. this is where people get ammocete -- antsy because they say you are taking over the energy of the occupy movement. we need good people to run. >> union unity of purpose if you are going to get anything done. my wife and i ran at an event for gloria steinem recently. -- you need unity of purpose if you are going to get anything done. they were chanting about the notion that the occupy movement is male-century. -- male-centric. they had a chance that that it t mean 99% men. you have people rending this garment of unity. >> you always find there are divisions.

up as corporations and billionaires' to show their support for a bill intended to overturn the citizens united decision. that allowed supertax to make unlimited campaign contributions to political candidates. john sarbanes call that money drones. >> you don't know who is operating it because there is no disclosure, no transparency. you don't know where the money is coming from. >> the supreme court has threatened to create a government of the corporation and for the corporation. >> special interest groups spent more than a billion dollars to influence the outcome of the last election cycle. >> get ready to cue the dream sequence. the road to new orleans and travels a familiar path. for the second straight season, the ravens have to beat the patriots had to let stadium to make it to the super bowl. >> we have the route to the super bowl covered. but still live to enemy territory in a bit, but let's start with how the team prepares to win it -- to leave new england with a win on sunday. >> it took the ravens of 38 points to beat the denver broncos and it might take more to beat tom brady this su

what did citizens united say?ce kennedy unfortunately didn't we don't need to stop political spending by regulation. the shareholders will do that. that they know i don't think well, we don't actually have the ability to call up the ceo or have a vote on this. even if we did, how would we know what they were spending. >> that's a rich moment. i think people listen okay current and on the radio and watching on current, they didn't hear that right. in the decision of the supreme court, they said the whole idea, that the shareholders would be able to control how the ceo or the government affairs when it comes to politics. the sad part is, the ha- ha as i like to say, these individuals have no idea because this has not been disclosed to them. >> it's crazy. >> you could go down to google or do a search and find out some of this information. you pretty much don't know. you don't know how much they give to the chamber of commerce. you don't know how much they pay in lobbyists. you don't know how much the individuals are

fighting in states for clean money reform, and fighting for an amendment strategy to overturn the citizens united decision, and fighting in elections to change the supreme court. >> what would you think of having a national general assembly modeled on the original continental congress in philadelphia beginning on july 4 of 2012? coming up with a list of grievances that this assembly debated. >> lawrence blessing has talked about a new constitutional convention. i think it is early. i think it is tricky. i do not mean to sound too conservative. when you say to make a list of grievances, we could sit in this room and come up with a list of six ideas or grievances that need to be made real and lead to change. you need to find your issue, work in your community. work in your community. work in the organizing arou

fighting in states for clean money reform, and fighting for an amendment strategy to overturn the citizens united decision, and fighting in elections to change the supreme court. >> what would you think of having a national general assembly modeled on the original continental congress in philadelphia beginning on july 4 of 2012? coming up with a list of grievances that this assembly debated. >> lawrence blessing has talked about a new constitutional convention. i think it is early. i think it is tricky. i do no

. >> reporter: the most recent in 2010 controversial citizens united case of the supreme court means corporations have the same rights people have like unlimited donations, to some kinds of political action committees. mike sugarman, cbs 5. >>> need to feed the meter without leaving that important meeting? there is an app for that ,,,, for over 60,000 california foster children, nights can feel long and lonely. i miss my sister. i miss my old school. i miss my room. i don't want special treatment. i just wanna feel normal. to help, sleep train is collecting pajamas for foster children, big and small. bring your gift to any sleep train, and help make a foster child's night a little cozier. not everyone can be a foster parent, but anyone can help a foster child. een >>> red light cameras will be coming to one of san francisco's most dangerous intersections. market and octave yeah street. it is a hazardous area because of cars making illegal right turns on to the central freeway. >>> you will be happy to know feeding the meter is getting easier in san francisco. oh, joy. the popular pay

speaker, three years have past since the supreme court's dreadful citizens united decision, and we have seen the dramatic increase in the amount of corporate money flowing into our elections, drowning out the voices of ordinary american citizens eager to participate in the political process. citizens united also epitomizes the so-called corporate personhood movement in which some now say the corporations are people. the fact is corporations are not people, and the constitution was never intended to give corporations the same rights as the american people. corporations don't breathe. they don't have kids, and they don't die in wars. my constituents continue to express concern about the growing influence of corporations in our political discourse. they're also demanding action on campaign finance reform because they are repulsed by the large amount of money in our campaigns. and quite frankly, they want elected officials to spend more time on policy, deliberating and debating on issues and less time dialing for dollars. unfortunately, the republican leadership in the house has failed to a

citizens united in the mix.we also at the same time have these operatives who run these groups, have become very good at setting them up with nothing to do this year. so it's kind of a perfect storm >> woodruff: you also talked to them jim, i saw in your reporting. for all the money that was spent against president obama last year, that was a campaign that wasn't successful. you talked to them about that and about why they think it's worth theirñr money this time. >> first of all in the case of sheldon addalson he told the wall street journal a few weeks ago easy come easy go basically. i'm in the gambling busy and you lose sometimes. for him, this is chump change. he probably didn't even notice the $100 million or so that he reportedly spent out of his bank account. but others like foster frees who is a big investor out of the west he wants to keep spending. he believes what he believes. they do know that they lost and didn't get what they wanted for their money so they're going to think about tactics going for

honestly, we can debate any time but this is -- >> put aside citizens united. look at grover norquist who likes to is a pledge to constituents. my constituents don't have $10 million to drop on a campaign when something goes wrong. grover norquist does provided by karl rove and his pac and the koch brothers and their pacs. it's like the nra saying they're a membership organization. that's what grover norquist is doing. no, it's not. it's a lobby group with a lot of money mant to preserve special interests for people. that has a lot of influence on what going on with these congressmen. >> you're right, it does have an influence -- >> also it's the house where they're running every two years so they're in a constant state of running, in constant fear of a primary battle. in the senate they have six years, they're able to look a little bit more long term. >> a few thousand bucks means a lot in a haus race. when grover has $10 million, that's a lot of influence. he's not just a regular guy. i love the way he paints himself as just another guy who doesn't want tax i

citizens united in the mix.we also at the same time have these operatives who run these groups, have become very good at setting them up with nothing to do this year. so it's kind of a perfect storm >> woodruff: you also talked to them, jim, i saw in your reporting. for all the money that was spent against president obama last year, that was a campaign that wasn't successful. you talked to them about that and about why they think it's worth theirñr money this time. >> first of all in the case of sheldon addalson he told the wall street journal a few weeks ago easy come easy go basically. i'm in the gambling busy and you lose sometimes. for him, this is chump change. he probably didn't even notice the $100 million or so that he reportedly spent out of his bank account. but others like fosterreesho is a big investor out of the west he wants to keep spending. he believes what he believes. they do know that they lost and didn't get what they wanted for their money so they're going to think about tactics going forwar

but with emily's list is held, if we reduce the role of money and politics, overturn the citizens united and the rest, and increase the level of civility in politics, we will change the environment in which politics is conducted. we will elect many more women to public office. that is a very good thing for our country. thank you, emily's list. we are emily, and we ain't seen nothing yet. thank you all. [applause] >> a look at the jefferson memorial. president obama's public inauguration as tomorrow, which happens to be allocated. -- mlk day. [indistinct conversations] >> large crowds gathered here this weekend at the immelt came memorial. we have live inauguration coverage starting tomorrow -- mlk memorial. we have live inauguration coverage starting tomorrow. next, a look at how u.s. presidents have feared his starkly in their second term. the specific -- have faced in their second term. host: want to welcome author and historian richard norton smith. the most memorable second term address was by abraham lincoln. guest: there are people who thinks that it outranks the gettysburg address

unprecedented steps to abuse the electoral college in the first election after the supreme court's citizens united decision hundreds of millions of dollars in outside spending by oligarchy like the koch brothers and sheldon adelson put republicans in control of the traditionally blue states that they targeted including pennsylvania wisconsin ohio and michigan. once they got charge of those state legislatures and the governors' offices the republicans gerrymandered the congressional districts to increase the number of safe republican seats and fracture this a safe democratic seats that's one reason why house democratic candidates received more than a million votes more than house republican candidates around the nation last november yet republicans still hold a majority in the house of representatives and republicans are now using these gerrymandered states to push their bold a step yet to rig the next presidential election. looks like it's going to happen first in virginia instead of a winner take all system or whoever wins the state wins the states vote for president republicans want virginia's e

start out a political system that's auctioning off these jobs and we have to revisit things like citizens united until we do that so bodies a special constituent who needs of asparagus music or needs a bridge to nowhere or needs a special excise tax rebate is going to be first and foremost for congress on like working families because that's who pays for the care of patients and it's a really interesting point to note and i know china and north korea are following this story along with other well leaders are following this story quite closely they are actually asking the u.s. why is something not being resolved and you know there's a lot of other people that are wondering what kind of a precedent we're setting being a global leader for other countries to be able to resolve their issues max rodwell senior analyst we're going past capital thank you so much for your opinion sir thank you. so ahead on art see you while the new year brings hope for many for residents art by the hurricane sandy life is still pretty grim but that didn't stop congress been ignoring their needs and hunting on sandy reall

exxon mobil microsoft i mean interestingly enough yesterday also mark the third anniversary of citizens united of course in this court case ruling that says corporations. just donated it unlimited amount of funds to politicians what do you think about the inauguration and how much of this legislation really poll loot everything that is supposedly a democracy yeah you know you're it should look like a lot of fun but it's pretty ridiculous just an orgy of cash and these big corporations putting money into it it's almost like ancient rome having people sucking up to the emperor that's what it's like these companies want to stay on the good side of the administration so they dump some money into it and the media was like oh obama is keeping it so restrained this time around just a small private celebration just came in six hundred thousand seven hundred thousand people. you know close supporters that's not a small celebration i will never get six hundred thousand people out to an event and it's huge it costs a lot of money the security costs i don't necessarily have a problem with that but that mo

the people of pennsylvania vote against them and of course as a result of the supreme court's citizens united decision the likes of karl rove sheldon aid olson and the koch brothers are learning from their mistakes last november and will continue their efforts to steal future elections the billionaire class and its front men in the republican party are hard at work again just as they were four years ago today we saw the second democratic president since f.d.r. to have a second inaugural but just underneath the revelry conspiracies abound in the billionaire class won't rest until they're assured that what happened today never happens again and that's the way it is tonight monday january twenty first two thousand and thirteen and don't forget the mock receive begins with you get out there get action take your seat. the be. suborning news today violence is once again flared up see these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada asked sunshine corporations are on the day the book. you are. the only good one.

the people of pennsylvania vote against them and of course as a result of the supreme court's citizens united decision the likes of karl rove sheldon adelson and the koch brothers are learning from their mistakes last november and will continue their efforts to steal future elections the billionaire class and its front men in the republican party are hard at work again just as they were four years ago today we saw the second democratic president since f.d.r. to have a second inaugural but just underneath the revelry conspiracies abound in the billionaire class won't rest until they're assured that what happened today never happens again. and that's the way it is tonight monday january twenty first twenty thirteen and don't forget the mockers he begins you get out there get active tag your seat. there are twelve cities in the united states in which half of the people with hiv aids lives within a year of a diagnosis of. over six to two percent on. the list with this is a problem that frankly is substantially preventable it was like the big elephant in the room and nobody wanted to talk about it

thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state being 21 years of age and citizens of the united states, or in any way abridged except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced to the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens 21 years of age in such state. mr. goodlatte: i yield to the gentleman from florida, mr. ross. mr. ross: or as a member of any state legislature or as an judicial officer of any state to support of constitution of the united states shall have engaged in insurrection erebellion against the same or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof congress may by a vote of 2/3 of each house remove such disability. section 4, the validity of public debt of the united states authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion shall not be questioned. mr. goodlatte: i yield to the gentleman from california, mr. denham. mr. denham:but neither the united states nor any state sh